“It was nearly two weeks ago. A Saturday. I was catching an evening train down to Barham. The day was damp and drizzly and the tube and station were crawling with the strident remnants of a football match.”

We had a long weekend for Deepavali. We got a 50-minute flight to Kuala Terengganu where we stayed the night and got the 7.30am boat to Perhentian Basar, an amazing tropical island. There were monitor lizards up to three-feet long prowling around…